DETACHMENT: Remembering Garvey 2025

“The Negro will have to build his own ¹industry, art, sciences, literature, and culture before the world will stop to consider him.”
― Marcus Garvey, Selected Writings and Speeches of Marcus Garvey

The African cultural response to everything seems to turn into some event on a European calendar. There is Africa Day, Slavery Remembrance Day, Juneteenth, all kinds of commemorations, and to what end? Africa Day, where we display our Chinese dashikis, Juneteenth, when we dance to Beyonce, and Black History Month for remembering Whitney Houston and Tupac. Now, remembering these events is not useless, but what do we gain from them? If they have no development purpose, they are terminal; they exist to exist, not having a clear purpose (Nia). And when the purpose does not speak to the mission, we have a problem. When all we do is react to the world oppressing us as spectators, no power has ever been transferred, not even from our grassroots leaders to any community. Our communities remain spoken for by political traitors and paid celebrities.

But what do you expect? Go and see who claims to represent Garvey. Not one of them runs businesses or is involved in technology and the media. They are academics and pen-pushers in paperless organizations. If you went to them and said, ” Here is a Pan-African business making products in Africa for the Diaspora they are stumped at what to do next. If you said you are training youth in welding and civil engineering, they would not know what to do. They might pour libations. They honestly do not have a clue what victory looks like.

We still have failed, abysmally, to create institutions with upstream influence that guide any sort of policy or interface at any level with relevant government institutions.

So, the reason we are all over the place in a state of confusion is that most of us don’t know what the hell we are doing. We don’t understand objectives. We have meetings without understanding the purpose (nia) of a meeting. We hold fancy titles without the matching skillset. This is why there is a page called Pan-African books with only memes, or a business page on social media celebrating Beyoncé’s birthday. If no one is actually in business, yet at a “business conference,” how is it going to work? If there is a discussion about “media” and no one makes media, how does that work? How does it work when our understanding of “institution” is a paper ego-driven organization with 10 CEO and 12 Executive chairs? In the last 70 years, our response to oppression has been monolithic, and at no point has any critical thinking been deployed to examine that. If our problems are economic, should we not have an economic response? If our issues are educational, should we not have an educational response? If parenting is a problem for our communities, would a fete for Women’s Day or some counseling be in order?

 

Garvery was about business; let our priorities be on business, not empty celebrations. 

GARVEY BEYOND A DATE

August will be the 135th birthday of Marcus Garvey, a key figure in Pan-Africanism. Ocacia shared with us a post questioning why they were honoring Garvey in July by a Garvey organization organizing events in August. Ocacia replied that they honor Garvey every month in their business. And that, since business was their primary business, would this person actually like to buy something? Of course, they missed the forest for all the trees blocking their view. The only way they know how to engage is in trivial minutiae. The top picture above was made specifically to honor Garvey, not just in August. Just like their Nkrumah and Gaddafi tops are not “special occasion”, they can be worn 365 days of the year. Kwanzaa might be celebrated in December, but we practise Kwanzaa every day. Can you imagine only practising self-determination and creativity in December? Every article we discuss Nia, not only at the end of the year. So, how does someone miss the forest due to the trees in their way? How did the greater issue of business ownership and industry succumb to a birthday?

MESSAGE OF GARVEY

What is the key message of Garvey? And how do we use Garvey to respond to the world we are in right now? And if I had to define this world, I think economics would be in the top 5, along with education (knowledge of how to do things).

So this guy from UNIA is lambasting a business (coming back to that) for honoring Garvey in the wrong month. The focus on the minutia is a characteristic of confused people who fail to grasp greater objectives. A colleague replied:

He clearly wants to get something off his chest (black ego)…he’s after all ‘formerly executive assistant to the UNIA secretary general’

But as always, we have gone deeper than that. If I were to pick some quotes from Garvey, they would be:

“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.”

― Marcus Garvey

“Intelligence rules the world, ignorance carries the burden…”
― Marcus Garvey

“We are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery, for though others may free the body, none but ourselves can free the mind. Mind is our only ruler; sovereign.”
― Marcus Garvey

“Every student of political science, every student of political economy, every student of economics knows that the race can only be saved through a solid industrial foundation; that the race can only be saved through political independence. Take away industry from a race, take away political freedom from a race and you have a slave race.”
― Marcus Garvey, Selected Writings and Speeches of Marcus Garvey

In all of those quotes, which one is worried about celebrating Garvey’s 135th birthday? But I see references to education and economics. Ocacia is part of the clothing industry. Making clothes and running websites requires education. So that is the bulk of Garvey represented right there. Let us now look at the organization “celebrating” Garvey next month? What do they have on the cards? They will repeat, for the 3000th time in 22 years, “We should unite,” but then offer you nothing after that. It is easy to attend a Garvey event next month, but what will you walk away with? A full belly and tired feet from dancing? Or a business plan and some leads? But if none of us understands education and business, then how could we discuss business?

More music

James Small inspires people to do what? Start BlackStar liner? Has spirituality led to the economic liberation of any people? Did it work for Japan or Israel? Did it rebuild Germany after 1948? Is it the fuel behind the rise of Singapore as an economic hub of Asia?

I don’t like to have to call out people, but have you seen James Small’s profile?

Would he not be better suited to address a “spiritual” ceremony than being called to speak about Garvey (a man whose core message was economics)?

FISCALLY ILLITERATE

During COVID, when an African business responded to the crisis by producing African cultural face masks, a “conscious” person replied and said they were “capitalist”. Yet they were wearing a Chinese mask. The response to capitalism and globalization is to sing a song, “Capitalism is a vampire”. But they have a bank account with Capital One. If they are lucky, they rent or pay a mortgage to someone. After the gig, they want people to buy their music on CD Baby. This is the level of immaturity that plagues African people who claim consciousness. They object to the system they are embedded in. So, if capitalism is the vampire, and it may or may not be, where is your alternative? Allow an example.

The alternative to Western banking, according the Muslims cursing capitalism is Islamic Shariah Banking. The alternative to Western poisonous food is Halal food.² I hope my point is clear. The Chinese complained about the security risk of US-owned GPS,

so what did they do? They created and launched the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System. They did not write a reggae track called Babylon Tracking Me. So every response betrays Garvey. Because Garvey did not respond to the issue of global commerce with just a beautiful talk. He started Black Star Liner. ³ Where is our Black Star Liner 1 century on? Yet at the Garvey event next month, how many businesses are there discussing that?

Where can I go to find a discussion similar to the one we are having 135 years from the birth of Garvey? I challenge you to post the link below this article.

CONFUSION

And is Ancient Egypt any different? We cannot look at Egypt and go and build like the Egyptians— God forbid. What do we take from Egypt? Oh, they had black skin like us. Anything else? Nope. So our entry into Ancient Egypt is matching skin tones. What about their amazing engineering feats, do we want to copy that? No, their skin color is all that matters.

 

CULTURAL RESPONSES

The Palestinian response does not terminate with mass protests on the streets. Their BDS is not just “don’t buy Coke”. It is economical on both ends. Stop buying Coke and support Gaza Cola. Stop eating your oppression, and eat liberation.

I want to take a few seconds to look at a simple Muslim fair and compare the presentation. I could have picked anything Jewish, or Arab, or any other group over the last 10 years as an example.

Must I waste my words, or do you see where I am going? From all of the quotes by Garvey, take a look at the shabby events full of food, music, talking, and dancing that “honor” Garvey. You can search Google yourself and see the results.

A piss-poor website and terrible marketing. No utilization of any web technology. So, how would you honor Garvey, considering the quotes I pulled? With “spirituality” or economics and education? In the Garvey quotes, I have made bold key words that I think define Garvey, yet why are they absent from these “celebrations”? Garvey was a staunch Christian, if we want to go there, so where is “spirituality” coming from?

All music and dance, and spirituality. I will go over the objectives once more for the people who did not understand my message:

Music, inspirational talkers, and cultural activities. Where are business and education? But if you return to our article on culture, you understand that how we (as the subaltern) engage with the world is through a cultural lens. The tools within that cultural lens seem to convert everything into entertainment. Garvey to me was all about economics, education, and unity, yet we translate that into another day for singing and dancing. This is the disconnection. And it is why our culture needs a review. In South Africa, they have Youth Day and celebrate it with women shaking their bottoms. Steve Biko is honored with Kwaito music and alcohol.

Would you like to see how Jews honor the victims of the Jewish Holocaust? Look at the presentation quality of Muslim events. Why must everything in African culture be expressed by entertainment and low-quality organization? How does that prepare us for the future? Where even a “business” conference is dominated by singing and dancing. And it explains why most of our events have terrible planning. Yet planning and purpose are part of education.

 

1. not ordering stuff from Aliexpress and calling onself an inventor[↩]
2. we can get into that but that is outside of the scope of this article.[↩]
3. Garvey’s activism made him a target of U.S. authorities. In 1923, he was convicted of mail fraud over a $25 investment in the Black Star Line—a charge many believe was politically motivated. Sentenced to five years in prison, he was deported to Jamaica in 1927 and barred from re-entering the U.S. He died in London in 1940 at age 53, but his pan-African vision endured.[↩]